


perpendicular

by writerforlife



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst, Coda, Din Djarin Needs a Hug, Episode: s02e08 The Rescue, Gen, Introspection, listen I may have shed a few tears at this ep, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:15:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28161522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerforlife/pseuds/writerforlife
Summary: Din reflects on letting Grogu go, and what it means to love a child
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda
Comments: 13
Kudos: 100





	perpendicular

**Author's Note:**

> listen it takes a LOT for a show to make me cry honest-to-god tears but Favreau and Filoni did it!!! they fucking did it!! a bitch may have shed some tears!!
> 
> ANYWAY please enjoy my little coda to the episode that broke my heart

Din sits on the bridge, his helmet still cast aside.

Cara and the other women give him space—they make their excuses of having to secure the ship, Bo-Katan’s gaze lingers on him, but he knows it is to give him space. 

His chest aches with a hurt that neither bacta nor Grogu’s magic could cure.

_ He wants your permission.  _ Din could nearly laugh.  _ His  _ permission. He is nobody. Yes, within his culture, he is somebody, a Foundling who soon learned the value of Mandalore culture. But everything he’s seen? It’s big. Bigger than he knows how to comprehend—Imps, Jedi and their glowy-stick-weapons and magic, droids that his weapons can’t take down. It’s the story that the galaxy will tell for decades to come, the story they have already been telling since the beginning of the New Republic. Grogu has a role in it. Din knows that.

He also knows that his and Grogu’s lives were always meant to be perpendicular. Their worlds—the Jedi and a Mandalorian, who would have believed it—intersected for a moment. 

(And truly, a moment: in the grand scheme of Grogu’s long life, Din would only be a small flash in it, a memory that would go hazy). 

Now they would go their separate ways.

_ You did the right thing,  _ he tells himself.

Din wasn’t strong enough to help him. Not in the way Grogu needed to be helped. He couldn’t sense the Force. He didn’t  _ understand  _ the Force. 

_ You did the right thing you did the right thing you did the right thing you did— _

He shifts, and his hand brushes against a lump in his pocket. 

Slowly, he realizes what he is touching. Trembling, he holds the silver orb in his palm. It’s cool, smooth against his new wounds and old callouses. Before he can stop himself, he thinks of Grogu cradling the ball with both hands, completely absorbed in the allure of the toy. 

Din stands, panicked. He hadn’t meant to keep the ball. It was Grogu’s toy, the only thing he’d recovered from the Razor Crest. Maybe the Jedi hasn’t left yet. Maybe he could catch them and give—

_ No.  _

No, Grogu didn’t need the orb. He was training to be a  _ Jedi,  _ and surely, they would be able to give him everything he wanted and needed. 

Din sank to the floor again.

He curled his hand around the ball. His nails bloody his palm; his knuckles whiten. Logically, he knows the Jedi can protect Grogu. He’d seen the man decimate the droids with nothing but his weapon and his mind. But there’s so much  _ more  _ about the kid that he could have shared, just to make sure Grogu would be okay. He could have said that he liked to eat frogs, but too many were bad for his stomach; he could have said that the kid was an adrenaline junkie if he’d ever seen one. Din could have said that no matter how powerful Grogu was, he liked to be held as any other child would. He could have reminded the man that Grogu was special, and needed to be treated as such. 

Din screws his eyes shut and chokes back a sob. 

Somebody clears their throat in the doorway

Quickly, Din shoves his helmet on. He recognizes Cara’s heavy footsteps. She sits next to him, quieter than he’s ever heard her. She remains silent, and Din knows she must hear his quiet sniffles. After a few moments, though, she says, “You did the right thing.”

“I know,” he manages to reply. “This is the Way.” 

“The right thing can still hurt.” 

He thinks of Grogu’s small hand brushing his face. Suddenly, he hopes that he is shouldering all the burden of this parting, that Grogu is excited and happy for the future. After years of pain and fear and persecution, he deserves that and more. That’s what Din wants for him. Din loved _ —loves— _ that child as if he were is own. For a moment, he was Din’s. 

But stories shift. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope everyone enjoyed this angsty little one-shot <3 I'm considering writing either a post s2 AU or even some prospective ideas for s3 if I get some extra time, if anyone would be interested in that? 
> 
> also, feel free to find me on tumblr to chat about the mandalorian or anything else!! @such-geekiness


End file.
